In The End
by insertappropropriatenamehere
Summary: Futurefic, dark. Sasuke finds that revenge isn't everything, but by then it's already too late. Everything's gone, and it's all his fault. It was his choice. Oneshot.


2stupid: Holy…. What did we write?

Tensa-chan: A fic. Duh.

2stupid: While we were listening to 'Soul Meets Body' by Death Cab for Cutie. The lyrics kinda fit?

Tensa-chan: You wrote this crap, not me.

2stupid: Then it's not crap!

Tensa-chan: Read and review, folks! And it _is_ crap!

XxXxX

Summary: Semi-AU. Because, in the end, Sasuke was supposed to kill him, because their bloodline was cursed. Character death.

Genre: Supernatural/Angst

Warning: Semi-stream of consciousness. For all but the last bit, it's Sasuke going through his memories. That means grammar will not be the best. That and it's really late at night, so there's also some flowery language because my brain is wandering eighty different, meandering paths.

Note: The actual fic isn't too long. There's just quite a bit of timeskipping and explanation.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. The conversations are taken from several different sources and my own interpretation. Kudos to Binktopia and Onemanga.

XxXxX

In The End

XxXxX

"I'm sorry," Itachi whispered as he smiled and touched Sasuke's face. "But this is the last time."

Sasuke could only stare in shock as his brother fell and died before his eyes. He smiled, in regret, in relief, in anger, in a hundred different emotions, none of them joy.

XxXxX

That was the first time he had decided on his course. The second time was when Madara had forced the truth upon him, the truth that should have been a lie.

"For him, your life was more important than the entire village."

_Nonononono!_ He denied it, denied it even as the memories came crashing down in perfect clarity, breaking down his view of the world- his illusions, a masterpiece of a lifetime crafted by a master of his art. "You're lying!"

Madara had to be, when the last thing Sasuke wanted to do was to go against his brother's world, the brother who had been the center of his life.

"You're alive," the man repeated those hateful words. "Up until the moment of his death- No, even after death, he was thinking of you."

Madara was speaking, but Sasuke only half-listened. He heard phrases, snatches of sentences, sliding through the thick, cold haze beginning to surround his thoughts.

"-to take revenge for the Uchiha-"

"-all for his beloved older brother-"

"-he lived as a fugitive, a traitor, a criminal, praying for the release of death-"

"-left the name of Uchiha to you, and deceived you all the way to the end."

It was funny, then, how their lives had centered around each other, to the exclusion of all else. The two of them, like dragon and phoenix, fighting in a coexistence that would have destroyed anything else, fallen out of time for a hopeless cause.

And then his thoughts shut down entirely, leaving behind a roiling mass of emotions.

That was the first time he learned to hate the world he lived in, a world of injustice that fostered injustice.

That was why he hadn't taken his brother's eyes, to break the cycle.

Really, Madara knew, the world only changed because people forced their perceptions of the world upon others. Uchiha Sasuke would be one such person.

XxXxX

The second time he learned to hate was when he chose to destroy Konoha and undo his brother's hard work and the third time he decided on his course, because people inevitably grow weary of violence when violence is brought into their lives in all its dirty, despairing glory.

"I won't take his eyes," he had said, but his resolve gave out when Madara reminded him of the Mangekyou's dark side effects.

Still, he reflected, staring up at the enormous moon above hanging aloof from the petty troubles that consumed the world, it still felt like betrayal, so he had run before Madara could so much as open the jar, the life-preserving fluid sloshing but still trapped, a pair of dull red irises staring out at him, disapproving of his choice. He had shuddered but done nothing, to ashamed of his decision to do anything but follow his plan.

Madara had tsked and looked askance but said nothing and merely gave the jar to him. He had taken the jar and sealed it somewhere safe as a last reminder to himself of his last choice in life.

He still fingered the scarlet-black seal inscribed into his wrist at times, just to keep his resolve up in a world where nothing mattered.

XxXxX

The fourth time he decided on his course was when they sealed the Hachibi no Hachimata.

As he watched the last vestiges of the bijuu's chakra disappear into the statue's mouth and the jinchuuriki drop to the floor, dead, from his position on the right ring finger of the statue's chained hands, he reflected on how he and Itachi had been just like the jinchuuriki and the bijuu.

They had been trapped like that, the few sacrificed to ensure the happy lives of the many, a sacrifice that had, like so many others he knew and did not care to name, been wasted.

He wondered what the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki would do when Naruto found out that he had joined the Akatsuki, no matter how informally.

The blond would probably be pissed, of course, but there was no escape from him when he fought those who could negate and destroy his power.

His own life felt that way sometimes, and suddenly the promises and actions he had taken to fulfil his final mission seemed far to burdensome, a hindrance and pile of sins rather the cleansing he wished they could be.

The ring resting on his finger seemed to burn into his flesh, and as he phased out of the cavern he ripped it off and threw it as far away as possible, ignoring the blood coursing down his hand because the ring was not really a ring but the tangible result of a seal connecting him to the sealing statue.

The glint of metal and polished stone caught his eye as it rippled into existence at his feet, connected to his body and his chakra in more ways than one. He picked it up, staring at the symbol inscribed in the gem, the focal point of the entire seal.

Suzaku.

XxXxX

The fifth time he decided on his course, was at the destruction of Konoha, the unfortunate side effect of their retrieval of the jinchuuriki. Madara and Pein's remaining body had already left to take Naruto to the sealing statue.

He watched as the black flames of Amaterasu consumed the innocent and the guilty alike, leaving no survivors, and wondered how much Itachi thought him a monster now.

Konoha's fall would draw in the other nations, and the world would be consumed by war. People, not just shinobi, would die in the upcoming free-for-all for the once strongest and most prosperous nation in the world. The world would know pain, suffering, and destruction.

And from that, he hoped they would learn peace and acceptance.

XxXxX

The sixth time he decided on his course was when they sealed Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, the being he should have worshipped and his own antithesis, into the sealing statue, ending any and all hopes of peace.

He let Madara and Pein guide the Akatsuki in their goals as, one by one, the rest fell. He even paid a visit to the forest where Hidan was sealed, resurrecting the man only to destroy him with the Amaterasu.

The priest had been right. Once the head was destroyed, the body stopped rebuilding itself and collapsed into ashes to be destroyed by black flame.

Konan had been the last to go, and Zetsu the first. Zetsu was the one who was closest and most accepting of Madara; Konan had been the close friend and confidante of the would-be god, the Rokudou Sennin.

Kisame's death had been somewhere in the middle, and Sasuke had ensured that he particularly suffered for personally making Itachi's life miserable, although he could hear his brother pleading for compassion in the back of his mind.

Neither Madara nor Pein had said anything, but Sasuke couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't dead yet.

Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu joined the list. Juugo had been the hardest for him to dispatch, not for the physical problem but for the fact that Juugo, like him, had been only a victim of bad circumstance.

He still slid the blade in with no hesitation, though. Soon, the world would become a nightmare, an apocalypse the kind but schizophrenic boy would have suffered in. So he ended Juugo's life as a mercy.

When he remembered his actions now, both Itachi's and Naruto's voices haunted him, telling him _this was the wrong way_.

It was already too late to stop, though. His hands were already bloodstained, and they would be cleansed with yet more.

The only way to stop the voices of his precious people was to wash them away with others.

XxXxX

The seventh time he decided on his course, and the last time he let himself feel regret, was when he saw people put in his position, brought to know misery as he did.

Still, he couldn't help but comfort the girl he held in his arms as fire burned away the last physical remnants of her life. She cried as she lost everything dear to her, as he had cried when he thought the same.

And then he became his brother by telling her the truth of his actions. Even as she recoiled, he was already gone.

Itachi and Naruto were silent now, watching in the back of his mind with the voices of the rest of the dead.

He wondered if he were insane, then dismissed the question as ridiculous.

Of course he was.

XxXxX

Seven had been the lucky number, and for once, something in his life had gone right.

The blade slid through Madara easily, as the man had not been expecting it. Sasuke had grown skilled at hiding his true intention and then striking fast before his target knew what had happened, just like the snake he had always been. He took off the hated mask and looked the man in the eye, his own vision having deteriorated so far that he could barely make eye contact.

Their Sharingan met, and Madara turned the flames of Amaterasu on himself. "You were always special," he whispered before the Amaterasu's unique hiss drowned out his speech forever.

He attacked Pein next, the Kusanagi ending the Rin'negan just as the Last Great Ninja War ended.

How fitting, he thought hazily, pulling the black blade from his own chest, that the death of the Rokudou Sennin symbolized the end of the era he had created.

_You must live,_ Itachi whispered in his mind. _Take my eyes and see this world's future._

_Atone for your sins,_ Naruto urged. _Finish the job and create a new era. One without tools of war. _

The other voices in his mind added their agreement and various pieces of wisdom, from Tsunade (the souls of the Shodai to Yondaime Hokage were in the Shinigami's stomach and would not be giving counsel anytime soon, no matter how deranged Sasuke got; shinobi were logical, even when insane, or they wouldn't be shinobi) to Orochimaru, who had supposedly been silenced by the Totsuka no Tsurugi.

_But then, nothing's as it ever seems, is it, Sasuke-kun? _That was Sakura's voice, as young and innocent and cheerful as it had been the day they had first met, before her world, and all of theirs, collapsed into ashes.

_Don't make it so that we died for nothing, teme. Pick up the pieces, figure out a purpose, and get moving. I know you're smarter than that! _Naruto scolded. He had never been one to give up.

As he slowly healed the stab, he reflected on just how right those words were. He chuckled as he realized just how much his first team still influenced him. Itachi and Naruto; his oldest influence, and his closest, as equal to each other as they were on him.

(Odd, his mind thought. Shinobi weren't supposed to dream; they were tools, and tools did not have dreams. Over the years, as the voices inside his head vanished slowly, one by one, until even Itachi and Naruto vanished one day, that train of thought was reinforced. He was fairly certain he had gone insane and equally certain that there was nothing precious left out of his vengeance. His mind argues that for tools, there was no sanity. Everything was the same- cope or break, and die, uselessly.

(How truly Kakashi had spoken, back when he was a foolish, impressionable genin. There was nothing left after an avenger finished his job. Avenger. His mind took that word, shredded it, and chopped it into unrecognizable pieces and definitions. That word no longer had any meaning in his or any other world. His mind quickly shut down that train of thought.)

He was the last of his kind. As the sealing statue disappeared into the ground for the last time, taking with it the remnants of the lost era, he began gathering survivors and recreating civilization. There would be no more sacrifices like his. He would, instead, remember the ones the world had made to make his illusion reality.

It was the dawn of a new age.

XxXxX

In a technological society plagued with its own problems, a society where the words 'shinobi' and 'chakra' were merely myths, two people's eyes met, slid off each other, and searched on.

Their time was past. It was time to move their burdens on to the next generation.

One figure turned, ran back to the other.

"Wait!"

XxXxX

Author's Note:

This is a oneshot, although it may turn out to be the prequel/prologue to some high school Naruto semi-reincarnation fic. Please tell me if I've left plot holes.

In case you're confused, Sasuke's the only one of the Naruto cast left alive at the end. Everyone else died either from him or during the war, which effectively killed off all active shinobi. (Remember Pein's ultimate weapon? That helped.) The ninja lifestyle died out because there were no shinobi left, so no one could figure out how to fiddle with ninja techniques because 1) ninja are secretive and don't write everything down and 2) the survivors probably don't really care and want to forget about what caused their pain and suffering in the first place. Sasuke wouldn't let them forget, nor would he make his role pre- and post-war very prominent or tell the people he was a shinobi. Instant death wish there.

The 'technological society' is basically the modern world, modified to fit the Naruto history and geography. Hence no 'Japan,' and 'Apocalypse' instead of 'World War I/II'. As a result, there are no guns and no cars. (Think modern-day Japan setting) Sasuke took Itachi's eyes and became immortal, so he's the only character who will not reincarnate himself.

Also, I debated between putting the last word as 'Matte'/'Wait' and as 'Sasuke'. I ended up putting 'Wait' in because 'Wait' sounded a bit more final but also left more to interpretation. It is possible to substitute the other option(s) in and see how that effect works. It makes the ending _very_ different, so do that if you want this as a one-shot.

XxXxX

The person in the last scene was Sasuke. The other person was either Itachi or Naruto.

If you think it's Itachi, then he and Sasuke are finally meeting after a long time because their bond can't be broken. (hence 'after death') They obviously aren't brothers anymore, but Sasuke did end up reproducing.

If you think it's Naruto, then he and Sasuke are going to teach a new generation how to deal with the world as they rediscover their old one- as high-school students.

Either way, the main idea is still in place.

Vote in a review and tell me if you want a sequel and who you think the person is. If you do, I will alternate updates between this and 'Brave New World' and possibly a third plotbunny that JUST WON'T GO AWAY. takes a torch and attempts to smoke out bunnies, to no effect

So push the little purple button to the right of the little purply menu on the bottom left hand corner, please, and tell me what you think. And no, putting the story on Favorites or on Alert (AN: O.o'') does not constitute a review. A PM does. I want opinions.


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